Strange image stuttering while having 60+ FPS?

Hi guys! I think i might have a problem :

When I play NFS World and Metro 2033, there's sometimes a weird stuttering. Can you guys tell me whats wrong? I have stuttering when having great FPS! It doesn't mean the hardware is failing, right? Since the PC doesn't even have 3 months and its an ASUS one... Opioins & help appreciated!

SPECS :

ASUS N61Jq-JX040

i7 720QM
ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5730
6GB RAM

 

I think it might be called screen tearing? Not sure.

 

Nope, I had VSync on. I had "FPS lag" when having 60 FPS. Ive done some search and it says that it means your hardware is failing BUT MY PC IS ONLY 2 AND A HALF MONTHS OLD!

Opinions and help plz

 

Help please! I need to know the cause to get it fixed!

 

Huh? Could also mean spyware.

 

Nope, dont have it. Can it mean that my hardware is failing? And I think its impossible since the lappy is RECENT

 

I have that problem with a western digital scorpio blue installed. While playing games it keeps going into idle mode, then when it needs to get accessed games stutter while its waiting for the HDD to spin back up and access what it needs. Could that possibly be what you're experiencing? What kind of hard drive do you have?
Otherwise, it could be a driver issue. There's a few different possible causes. Processes running in the background could also cause this, but I wouldn't jump to the conclusion just yet that your hardware is failing.

 

I have a SATA 500GB at 5400RPM. everything is updated. Except BIOS, because im afraid to screw something up, since im not a pc wiz.

I srsly dont think the HW is failing since the temps NEVER went more than 82 deg. Celsius. Both GPU and CPU.

 

hardware failing can also be because of manufacturing defects not just caused by temperatures.
Phistachio, can you please verify the hard drives model number.
You can do this by going to Start-> Right click My Computer-> Properties-> Device Manager-> Under Disk drive, gives us everything it says.

Also I recommend running 3dmark06 (or vantage), to see if perhaps there's some issue with performance. Let us know the hard drive model number and the 3dmark06 score. Or 3dmark vantage. This way we can try to compare it to a similar setup to see if there any issues with throttling, or performance.

 

Since I have my PC turned off, and I am writting this through my Ipod I will come back with results tomorrow. And I dont think there are defect since ASUS PCs are extremly good...

ALSO, THE BEST WAY TO DESCRIBE WHAT I AM HAVING IS FPS SKIPPING!
Ive searched and the proper name for this problem is "FPS Skipping"

 

Today, I can buy a brand new laptop at Wal-Mart for $350, thats slower than a 2.5 year old Dell XPS M1730.

Please tell us your machine model and specs.

 

ASUS N61Jq-JX040V

i7 720QM 1.6GHz with TB to 2.8GHz
6GB 1066MHz RAM
ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5730
500GB SATA 5400RPM

Can the FPS skipping be related to having it installed in D:\?

 

What is the brand and model number of your hard drive?

 

Sorry I cannot provide the info ATM, typing this "under the pillow" on my ipod since I should be asleep xD
I shall give it to you tomorrow

 

No, there is nothing wrong with your hardware. It is purely a software issue, highly probable that it is spyware / virus. If you reinstall your OS and software, the stuttering will go away.

 

everything to you is a virus.

 

What are you talking about? I really don't know what it is other than a software issue causing the kind of stuttering he is talking about.

 

Regarding spyware and viruses I would run malwarebytes anti-spyware to ensure there is nothing going on there.

Otherwise probably a driver issue. Could be the hard drive as people have mentioned, but most likely a driver issue. I would see about an updated driver or even an older one.

One other thing to do is download the latest directX. Go to microsoft.com/directx, click "latest directx downloads for gamers", and download and run the "directx end-user runtime". Updating directx which is frequently updated, has fixed numerous issues for me in the past.

 

Ok, then, i will run a Norton 360 full scan. Will comeback later with results and info about HDD and 3DMark 06

 

Ah! Norton 360 huh?

There's your virus.

Uninstall Norton and see how good your system can be.

Oh, and install Microsoft Security Essentials instead.

 

But, But, But...

MSSE is too weak! it doesn't catch all viruses out there! Norton does!
What about Trend Micro or ESET Nod32?

Anyways, I forgot to mention that I have another problem in just cause 2 demo: there is a slight visual lag between what I do and what happens in the screen, I mean, I press W or M1, anything, and there is lag between the moment I press the button, and the moment I see the action/movement happening. The lag is equal or less than 1 second, but it's pretty noticiable IMO

 

MSSE too weak?
Lol ...
MSSE is on par with latest Norton in detection rates, protection and removal.

The stuttering itself is quite possibly caused by your HDD though ... it tends to do that on occasion.

 

Don't give us this crap. Give some solid evidence before posting lies.

Download this. Post results.

 

But still, what about ESET NOD32 and Trend micro?

 

The results are in a image.

 

mmmm, where can I find those info? If I go to "Device Manager it doesnt show any "Disk drive", well, it shows, but only a hitachi with no info about it

 

No, get Avast! Free anti-virus. MSSE is actually very good, but it occasionally unnecessarily works your CPU for no apparent reason. Has happened to me on several notebooks on many occasions. Avast is free and very good as well, and so far no issues that I've encountered. If you're willing to pay, then Eset is best. But Norton could very well be the cause of your issues. Norton and McAfee while they used to be the best are really bloatware now for no reason and can affect system performance.

 

Norton is crap. Has been for ages. Don't argue.

Avast free is great, 9 months no problems.

On my lappy, GRID ran like a dog even on lowest settings on a almost-full badly fragged 7200RPM. Reinstalled onto X25M and it's melted butter smooth

Do these games record a replay during gameplay like GRID?

 

What is bloatware? But which AV uses the least resources?

 

Why is it crap? it already protected me from lots of viruses, and has a very handy tool : It puts a Yes or Dangerous sign after each website, so it says if the website is safe or not. What AV do you recommend? I mean, one that doesn't leave a big footprint and doesn't use lots of resources, and another one that provides a good protection, whilst leaving a small footprint behind

 

Also, I uninstalled Norton, ran NFS world, almost no stuttering at all! But installed again, since I want to be protected

 

Yay! The couple times I had this issue I never was able to figure out what it was so I just had to end up reinstalling to solve it.

 

Re-installing what, the AV or the game?

 

nVidia has a setting for Rendering Frames in Advance. This supposedly limits the stuttering but it is a ballancing game. If you render too many in advance they have to be tossed if something changes. if there is alot of realtime things happening in fast action you would really want to render one or no frames in advance. I am not sure if ATI has a similar setting.

Edit; Also running FRAPS trying to record etc can cause issues.............

 

I'm talking the OS and all of my programs. It just randomly started exactly as you describe and I couldn't figure it out. I attributed it to spyware or something of that sort that was wiped out with the clean install. But with you since Norton is obviously the culprit, just switch to some other A/V software.

 

Yeah, Norton is once again the culprit.

If you want to be protected and still be able to play your games you need to get rid of the virus called Norton.

MSE is very capable and I have been using it and recommending it to all my clients successfully for the last year. Even clients that had my previous #1 recommendation Avast! have seen newfound life in their systems by switching to MSE. I have yet to see anyone get infected with MSE running (but don't forget this is a corporate/professional clientele too).

Also, download a trial of PerfectDisk 11 from Raxco and run an offline and an online defrag a couple of times and see if, along with MSE, it solves the remaining issues you see in your game.

Good luck.

 

What is your opinion about ESET AV and Trend Micro?

 

I don't think I'm allowed to state that here.

But, sufficent to say that I've never used them past the 'testing' stage.

Good luck.

 

If you are not willing to take our advice (through expertise) and install Microsoft Security Essentials, tell me why should we tell you our "opinion" on two other antiviruses?

I will say this one final time, I hope others do not carry on your pursuit of bias.

Uninstall Norton, and install Security Essentials.

 

Damn, chill out... Fine I will do it... Geez...

 

Avast and MSE are great. I personally prefer avast because of SLIGHTLY higher detection rates, but it's negligible. The extra .3% makes me feel slightly better inside.

 

But don't forget about the MSE bug where it can eat CPU cycles. I'm surprised that hasn't been fixed yet. I experienced it on two netbooks I owned, and two laptops. Near impossible to stop it too unless you stop certain services, etc. More of a pain in the butt than its worth.

Avast FTW!

If you are willing to pay, then Eset seems to be the absolute best as far as detection and small memory footprint.

 

hmmm... htwingnut, I certainly have never heard about the MSE 'bug'.

Any links?

 

Google:

microsoft security essentials cpu hog

Search these forums too, lots of people indicating as such. I've experienced it first hand. On my netbook it would consume near 100% CPU. On my laptop or desktop only 25-40% mainly because faster CPU's but still substantial. Here's one: http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/466744-msmpeng-exe.html

It doesn't usually rear its ugly head right away, but out of the blue it does. My laptop's fans starting spinning up and I was wondering what the heck was going on. One instance is was MSMPENG.exe and another it was IPv6 for some reason. I had to disable that service. I scanned for malware and viruses using a couple other programs and was clean, so no issue there.

 

htwingnut, thanks for the additional info.

I guess why I'm not affected by this is because I disable System Restore as soon as a clean install of Windows 7 has settled on the desktop.

And, almost all my clients have the same setup too (System Restore does more harm than good... so, it's disabled for them too).

 

It's not just system restore. It somehow gets in a recursion loop. I have system restore disabled as well, and still have the issue.

 

So, in terms of lightweight AV, ESET is the best, while still it maintaining a good level of protection?

 

In the past year, I must have installed/recommended over 800 installs of MSE and I have never seen this 'bug'. Not that it is not there, obviously, but when removing other A/V software and installing MSE there was a noticeable performance jump in every case.

In some instances, it was a matter of the computer Blue Screening or not (XP SP3) with specific peripherials attached (legal courtroom dictation machines, etc.).

My point is that for free, MSE is certainly worth trying - if issues arise with the programs you use and/or your specific hardware, then is when I would be persuing other options.

Good detection rates, no infections (myself and clients) and it actually is getting better all the time. An easy choice.

Good luck.

 

ESET is not as light weight as MSE (Security essentials) but yes it is the better of the two when it comes down to detection rates/ability to remove root kits I believe it was.

Both are light weight enough however not have a noticeable difference.
I may get ESET soon myself as I may start hosting a server for private information.

@Tilleroftheearth

I know the bug of which they speak off. Sets MSE to use 100%, it's so rare and I've witnessed it 3x from my customers. I noticed it's the lack of automatic updates causing the issue, not MSE, as after updating windows/components the issue went away.
Sure enough there was an application update for MSE that fixed the issue via Automatic updates.
http://pressf1.pcworld.co.nz/showthread.php?t=106702

Did I mention some of these people reported using MSE on old computers?

 

It's not that rare. I guarantee you it happens more often than people realize. For more powerful machines you may not notice it as much because the CPU utilization is a lot less, but for netbooks and older PC's it maxes out their CPU.

I've read that link before, the problem is that it's just an exclusion of certain file types but that's not good. Excluding a folder or certain files is just an open door to disaster.

I've used it on a half dozen machines personally, I have it autoupdate daily, and at some point within a few months of use it will rear its ugly head. Always. It's not always the same service or process either. Typically is msmpeng.exe, but also iphelper service, net services...

Rebooting the machine it would stop for a while. But if you leave your machine on for extended periods (like days at a time) even using sleep or hibernate, etc it will rear its head eventually. Only workaround I've ssen is to exclude certain files and folders.